Microsoft fellowship grant targets home sensor R&D

Shwetak Patel, an assistant professor at the University of Washington, has received a $200,000 fellowship grant from Microsoft to continue research into the energy efficiency of consumer electronics in the home. Patel and students at the university's Ubiquitous Computing Lab have developed ElectriSense, a plug-in sensor that collects data about electronics products within a home.



ElectriSense is a single plug-in sensor that provides whole home device level usage data. That is, using a single sensor plugged in anywhere in the home, ElectriSense can infer which electrical appliances are on and which off. This data could be used for numerous applications, for example, for providing home owners with itemized electrical bill that not only shows the total energy consumption but breaks the total on a per appliance basis (TV consumed 20 KWh, Lighting consumes 18 KWh and so on).

http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/sidhant/docs/ElectriSense.pdf

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